Conventionally, apparatuses, methods, and programs for managing and setting a network instrument connected to a network are known. There are an apparatus, method, and program which acquire various kinds of management information such as setting information from a network instrument as a management target by using a standard protocol such as SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) or a unique protocol, save the information in a storage device such as a database, monitor the state of the network instrument to be managed, and execute display or notification of error information.
In such network instrument management, it is necessary to ensure consistency between the management information in the network instrument to be managed and the target instrument's management information which is stored in the management system. Conventionally, as described in, e.g., Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-163344, when a management system accesses a network instrument to be managed, an access log is stored in both the storage area in the management system and that in the management target instrument. By comparing the access logs, the management target instrument's management information which is stored in the management system or the management information in the management target instrument is updated.
In the above-described conventional technique, however, the network instrument to be managed must have the storage area to save the management information access log. For an instrument without such a function and area, no method of preventing inconsistency of management information is provided.
Additionally, the above-described conventional technique does not assume that the management information of the network instrument to be managed be changed from the outside of the management system, e.g., from the operation panel of the network instrument, internal Web page, or dedicated setting change tool. If such unexpected change has been done, the management information about the management target instrument, which is stored in the management system, is updated by the management target instrument information. Hence, the system cannot cope with careless or malicious change of the management information of the management target instrument.